Monday, May 6, 2013

Its been a while since I have posted to my project however there were only a few things left to do after the last post. Those items have been completed and I got the bike out in the sun to take a few photos. Clicking on any of the photos will give you a large version to click through as a slide show.

First Day in the Shop December 2011

Complete May 2013

This CR125 Is as orginal as I could make it. All the plastics are original 1987 plastics as are all frame and motor parts except piston and rings. The tires, chain and sprockets are aftermarket parts as well as handle bars, but the wheels are original. The seat cover is reproduction of original equipment.

This last few shots are with the KX125 that I restored along side the CR over the last couple years, also complete. Check it out here kx125project.blogspot.com .

Sunday, February 3, 2013

I finally have all the parts assembled to put the top end back together and make this bike look like it belongs in one piece again.

I sent the cylinder out to a company in Texas called Rat Racing and thanks to Tom it came back looking beautiful and ready to go back together. Tom helped me get the right size piston and I wanted to keep it to as close to std bore as possible so he took all the measurements and decided that we could go .5mm over and clean up the cylinder perfectly with that size.

New Base Gasket.

Cylinder on, Piston arrow forward...Ready.

These two strokes go back together pretty easy, especially after you have done a couple four stroke bikes, the only tricky part can be getting the power valve put in correctly and the one on this bike is an easy one so it didn't take long to put it together.

All bolts Torqued down with new gaskets installed, valve linkage installed ready to put the covers back on.

Valve covers on, ATAC chamber installed .

Hoses installed, top motor mounts torqued, ready for exhaust.

Stock Exhaust with a couple little wrinkles, I'm on the lookout for a nice Pro Circuit system for it. Worst part of that is I had one in my dads barn a couple years back I ran across it, now it has gone missing.

Plastics back on, looking good.

Chain and Sprockets ordered today. Have to wait a bit for money to order tires, also need to find the proper prolink decal for the swing arm and a good intake manifold because mine has a crack all the way through and the one that I ordered and got in ups yesterday is not the correct model.

After sitting on that work table for just over a year, the CR has moved to a proper bike stand and is ready for tires.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

I had posted a photo of the new seat cover I ordered a week ago or so and finally got to put it on this weekend. The cover fit great but I struggled with getting the staples to go into the seat pan. When I did the seat on the KX I didn't run into this problem, the staples went right into the pan no problem. I think the plastic on the CR pan is much harder than the KX. I got it to work but it is not as clean on the bottom as the first one that I did. If anyone knows of a heavy duty stapler that can set a staple into hard surfaces maybe you could shoot me a message and let me know. Right now I am just using a ET50 Stanley electric stapler.

This photo really shows the only reason for replacing the seat cover, its a pretty bad rip. There is one other very small hole as well but it would have been cool to be able to use the original cover.

The cover came off clean except where the PO super glued the rip to the foam. Its not bad tho only took a small layer off the top of the foam.

Even the bottom of the cover where it wraps under the pan was in great shape, no tears under the edges.

The Pipe Off this 87 CR125 Is really in pretty good shape given that it is 26 years old. Not too many bikes make it that long let alone most of the parts like a pipe that often would get smashed in a tip over crash. I actually want to put an aftermarket unit on it. Back in 87 I had Pro Circuit pipes on my Hondas and would like to go that route. Until I can find a suitable unit I will be using the stock one but needed to take this dent out best I could.

The Dents came out very nicely. You can still see some wrinkle in the pipe up close but once I get a new coat of Satin Black on there it will look pretty darn nice.

I used the Pressurization technique, had to build some plugs of different sizes with schrader valves in them to ad air, then used my torch to heat the areas I wanted to bring dents out of and it worked great.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Finally I have gotten back to working on this project. It has taken some time to complete the KX125 Project (still waiting on finish decals) but it is time to get this thing done. I sent the cylinder out to be bored and a new +.5mm piston fit to it. Ill have photo report on that when it comes back in a week or so. Here I have a photo of the new seat cover that I ordered almost a month back. It is custom made so it takes a little while to get it once ordered but I did the same for the KX and it turned out great.

I hope to have time to put this on in the next couple days and I will post up those photos as well.
I have ordered a couple other smaller parts to get things moving along, air filter cage and a filter, no need for photos there though.

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The Back Story

This bike was originally purchased by a woman and her husband for some recreational trail riding. I have her name because its still on the title. They bought this bike (the 87) along with a 1986 CR125 (that I also bought) at the same time new in 1987. They proceded to ride the bikes for a couple of years as the story goes maybe three or four times a year. Then things between them went bad and they ended up divorcing in the early 90s. She got the bikes in the settlement. In 1995 She has a new boyfriend or husband and they decide to give the trail riding a try, they went out a few times but it turned out that they were over it. The bikes then sat in her garage untill Feb of 2010. Now the next owner comes along with his teen age son to purchase the bikes and use them for trail riding together. Neither of the new owner knew anything about bikes (and from the looks of just a few of the things on them I do mean they knew NOTHING about them) so the son takes off like he is invincable on the 1986 bike and procedes to ruin it from what I believe is running it without the use of pre-mix, ( I have not pulled the top end apart just yet). The son then decides to play mechanic and started pulling things apart without knowing what he is doing, so there are some small parts missing but was stopped before too long by Dad and saying they would have someone take a look at them. The 1987 bike was run some but at a much slower pace but probably still with no Pre-mix (it still has compression). So the bikes sit in a barn for some time waiting for Dad to have them looked at. It never happened, Son moved out Dad needs to move across country. After another year and a half in the barn now December 2011 I find the add on Craigs list and bang like that, I have two lightly used mid 80s CR125s for super cheap.